Lord Hylton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Adonis (HL 3661), whether a grant of £750,000 is being made to Liverpool City Council to pay for a specialist team of social workers to deal with unaccompanied asylum seeking children over the next three years; whether they agree with the estimate of the Liverpool charity Personal Social Services that more than 200 children have already arrived alone in the city; and whether any of the children have been identified as former child soldiers or as having been intentionally trafficked.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: Discussions have been taking place with Liverpool City Council and some other local authorities aimed at providing the Immigration Service with assistance from social workers skilled in assessing age. Funding forms part of these discussions. There are currently around 200 unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Liverpool. It is not possible to say if any are former child soldiers or have been intentionally trafficked. I would expect any evidence of this to be brought forward as part of an individual's claim for asylum.

Lord Hanningfield: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have made any strategic assessment of a possible take over of BAA.

Lord Rotherwick: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Why the Civil Aviation Authority conducted a small business impact test, and not a regulatory impact assessment as required by Better Regulation, prior to the increase in charges in January 2006.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The Big Lottery Fund is the operating name of the National Lottery Charities Board and the New Opportunities Fund, both executive non-departmental public bodies, working jointly together pursuant to the administrative merger in June 2004.
	Information up to 31 March 2005 is set out in the Accounts of the New Opportunities Fund, and of the Community Fund, copies of which were presented to Parliament on the 31 October 2005 and 15 December 2005 respectively.
	The following information has been supplied by the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund.
	
		
			  Grants where payments have been made since 1 June 2004 Awards approved since 1 June 2004 
			 New Opportunities 
			 Fund £828.6 million £623.3 million 
			 Community Fund £374.9 million £351.9 million 
		
	
	These figures exclude Awards for All and those delivered through Award Partners.
	The New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund working together as the Big Lottery Fund have made 24,560 awards since June 2004.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The Ministerial Code makes it clear that Ministers are personally responsible for deciding how to act and conduct themselves in the light of the code and for justifying their actions and conduct in Parliament.
	The Cabinet Secretary has confirmed that for the future he has put in place procedures to ensure that Ministers who are allocated official residences are given clear guidance on dealing with their council tax liabilities as set out in the Answer given in the other place by my right honourable friend the Deputy Prime Minister to the honourable Member for Meriden on 12 January 2006 (Official Report, Commons, col. 782-783W).

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 provides the rules regarding who may or may not become an Electoral Commissioner. Section 3(4) of that Act states that:
	"A person may not be appointed as an Electoral Commissioner if the person—
	(a) is a member of a registered party;
	(b) is an officer or employee of a registered party or of any accounting unit of such a party;
	(c) holds a relevant elective office (within the meaning of Schedule 7); or
	(d) has at any time within the last ten years—
	(i) been such an officer or employee as is mentioned in paragraph (b), or
	(ii) held such an office as is mentioned in paragraph (c), or
	(iii) been named as a donor in the register of donations reported under Chapter III or V of Part IV."
	The Electoral Commission is an independent body established by Parliament, and is therefore answerable to Parliament. The Speaker's Committee has responsibility for the oversight of the Electoral Commission's financial returns and budgetary plans.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The flag of the European Union is flown on Europe Day, 9 May, on all government buildings in England that have two or more flagpoles, provided it is flown alongside the union flag, with the union flag in a superior position. The number of flag-poles on government buildings is the responsibility of the individual departments. There are no plans at present to change this guidance.

Lord Bach: In the past two years, the computer systems at Defra have been compromised by malicious programmes (such as worms, viruses, etc) on the following five occasions:
	
		2004
		
			 Date of infection Machines affected 
			 February 2004 System wide—denied access to Defra's network for a working day for a large part of the department (up to 10,000 users) 
			  
			 May 2004 Approximately 550 PCs 
			  
			 August 2004 Users not directly affected 
			  
			 October 2004 Approximately 350 PCs 
			  
		
	
	
		2005
		
			 Date of infection Machines affected 
			 August 2005 Approximately 180 PCs 
		
	
	Upon discovery immediate action was taken to remove the malicious software. Apart from the incident in February 2004, the incidents did not have a significant impact on the day-to-day running of Defra's operations.

Lord Harris of Haringey: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	On how many occasions in each of the past two years malicious programmes have compromised computer systems in H M Treasury; and for each such occasion (a) how many machines were affected; (b) how long it took to remove the programmes from the system; and (c) what the impact was on the activities of the department.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: In the past two years, there has only been one occasion where a malicious programme was successful in affecting H M Treasury systems. On that occasion a single machine was affected (a web server). The machine was out of service for five days. Some of the department's work was delayed during this period.

Lord Acton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Davies of Oldham on 27 October 2004 (WA 134), whether the travelators at Heathrow Airport fell below the required standard during 2005; if so, in how many months of 2005; and how far short they fell of the required standard.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The operation and maintenance of travelators at Heathrow airport is a matter for the airport. BAA have indicated that there were no travelator failures at Heathrow airport in 2005.

Earl Attlee: asked the Chairman of Committees
	Whether the operation of the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Service is sufficient to ensure the health of Members with restricted access to primary health care due to their attendance at the House.

Lord Bach: The terms of reference for the Affordable Rural Housing Commission are:
	to consider the evidence and reach a consensus on the relevant issues around affordable housing needs in rural areas, in the context of sustainable rural communities; and
	to provide recommendations for practical solutions across private, government and voluntary sectors, taking account of existing good practice.
	The Commission will be reporting in spring 2006 and the results will inform the ongoing work of the Government and the Countryside Agency's Commission for Rural Communities. We would not want to pre-empt the recommendations of the commission. More information on the commission can be found on its website: www.defra.gov.uk/rural/housing/commission/.

Lord Warner: The Department of Health is responsible for the communications strategy for dealing with pandemic influenza. This strategy (published as an annex to the contingency plan issued in October 2005) aims to increase understanding about pandemic flu among public and health professionals.
	The Chief Medical Officer has produced an explanatory guide and a public information leaflet; [odq]frequently asked questions[cdq] and key facts sheets have also been developed. These are available on the Department of Health website at www.dh.gov.uk/pandemicflu and an information pack has been distributed to general practitioner surgeries, pharmacies, NHS Direct call centres, walk-in centres and other health professionals.
	Our strategy also takes into consideration ways to disseminate key messages during a pandemic.

Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the Wilson Doctrine on tapping telephones of Members of the House of Commons also applies to Members of the House of Lords.[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]

Earl Howe: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	In the light of the delay in rolling out computer software systems in the National Health Service, whether they have set a revised deadline for iSoft to perform under its contract; and, if so, what this deadline is; and
	What aspects of iSoft's past record in delivering software solutions to the National Health Service led to its being chosen as preferred suppliers for the [odq]Spine[cdq] and [odq]Choose and Book[cdq] systems.

Lord Warner: iSoft is not one of the preferred supplier contractors for either the data [odq]spine[cdq], or the [odq]Choose and Book[cdq] system, under the national programme for information technology in the national health service (NPfIT). Those contracts were awarded to British Telecom and Atos Origin respectively. iSoft is, however, a key subcontractor for three of the programme's five local service providers (LSPs), and has a track record of successful delivery of information technology systems to the National Health Service over a considerable number of years. Choice of subcontractors was and remains a matter for the LSPs concerned. NPfIT is delivering to the NHS a service for clinicians rather than a software package.
	In the Eastern, North East, and North West and West Midlands cluster areas—where iSoft solutions are being deployed—some 900 sites have had iSoft solutions installed, and these are being used by more than 25,000 users. Some LSP local system deployment activity is being rescheduled as a result of LSPs and their subcontractors, including iSoft, taking longer than originally anticipated to deliver software solutions. However, there is no single new deadline. NPfIT is a hugely complex 10-year programme which will see many thousands of further deployments and associated deadlines. Because contracts under the programme are structured so that financing and completion risk rests with the LSPs and their subcontractors, those who deliver get paid; the corollary also applies.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What progress is being made to ensure equality in the pension rights for women doctors, so that their 6 per cent. salary contributions prior to 1998 are considered in death benefit calculations for their bereaved spouses, in the same way as they are considered for male doctors who die leaving widows.

Lord Hanningfield: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether each gift valued over £140 received by the Prime Minister in 2004[en rule]05 continues to be held by the Prime Minister's Office as detailed by the Cabinet Office report published in July 2005; and, if not, where each gift is held.

Lord Bach: Since April 2002, the RDAs have been financed through a single programme budget (the [odq]single pot[cdq]). This consists of money from various departments (DTI, ODPM, DfES, Defra, DCMS and UKTI). Defra's contribution to the single pot in 2005–06 is £51.5 million. Inflation-proofing will see this increase to £52.5 million in 2006–07 and £54.5 million in 2007–08.
	The single pot is allocated using a funding formula, and is available to the RDAs to address regional priorities (set out in regional economic strategies), whilst at the same time contributing to the delivery of national PSA targets. Funding for administrative overheads is allocated from the single pot using a flat-rate indicator.
	Rural Strategy 2004 announced that, from 1 April 2005, Defra intended to devolve decision-making on delivery of economic and social regeneration policies to the regional development agencies, and transfer funding from the Countryside Agency to the RDAs. Funding of £21.3 million per annum has since been allocated for the years 2005–06 to 2007–08 and is distributed outside the single pot mechanism, using the new rural indicator to ensure these resources are targeted according to rural need. However, as with the overall single pot funding, RDAs have the flexibility to utilise this funding to contribute to the targets set by government (including Defra's PSA targets on rural productivity and access to services, sustainable farming and food, and sustainable development) and the priorities in each regional economic strategy.
	How each RDA utilises its single pot allocation will vary according to regional need. Details of RDA priorities and planned spending can be found in individual RDA corporate plans, with six-monthly reports on performance, setting out what has been achieved. These documents can be found on each RDA website.
	This move to devolve funding to the regions through RDAs is part of the Government's devolving decision-making agenda. RDAs, working in partnership, will decide how to spend their resources to meet national targets and address regional needs. However, Defra is confident that by devolving these responsibilities to the RDAs and having increased the resources it makes available to them, rural delivery will become more responsive to local priorities and better focused on areas and people that need it most.

Lord Davies of Oldham: Since July 2005 DVLA have issued 6,621 digital tachograph driver cards (figures correct as of 9 February 2006). It is not possible to estimate how many will be issued by 1 May 2006, as this will depend on the number of applications received.